Airplane transport isolators may loose leak tightness after rapid cabin decompression

Air medical transport of patients suffering of highly infectious diseases is typically performed employing portable isolation chambers. Although the likelihood of decompression flight emergencies is low, sustainability of the devices used is crucial. When a standard isolation unit was subjected to an explosive cabin decompression of 493 hPa, simulating a 32808 ft flight level accident, leak tightness of the unit was lost due to rupture of the bag caused by over expansion. When the pressure chamber experiment was repeated with a modified unit, distension was minimized by an additional compensation air bag, thus ensuring leak tightness. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13049-015-0090-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.